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Baking Fail and Weekly Workouts

Happy Monday. Here we are again at the start of the week. And two weeks until my half marathon crazy trail run. Mmm, I’m a little bit nervous!

So this weekend has been very low-key. Don’t you just love those kind of weekends? Ben and I had Parkrun in the morning on Saturday. I beat my last time by 15 seconds which I was over the moon about.

Then we had my parents over in a tag-team style affair on: my dad came over to watch football with Ben (joy of joys) and then my mum popped over later for coffee. Conveniently for Ben and my dad, they had on purpose accidentally got the time wrong and ‘unfortunately’ had to play an hour or so of Fifa on the Xbox before kick-off. *sighs*

While they did that I got on with a very important task: cake baking. I rarely bake because I’m really not that good at it. I really wish I was…but I’m just not great at following recipes. I don’t read them properly or just don’t follow them as well as I should. That’s fine for cooking…but baking, not so much.

I chose a Victoria sponge, because that’s my favourite and I know my mum likes it too (perfect for afternoon coffee).

*sighs*

I honestly followed the recipe exactly. But to no avail. It all went fine until I had to get the damn things out of their baking trays (I had greased them well I thought)…then the jam didn’t seem to like the cake. Oh it just didn’t work out well.

I bet you’re thinking: wait, that doesn’t look so bad. Right? Well, we all have bad angles in photos (I know I do!) so let’s see this baby’s bad side.

As much as I’d love to say that big gaping crack was due to me throwing my face in head first for a good old bite. But, alas, no. That’s just what it looks like naturally. And my lovely father called it the “earthcake” (as in earthquake but a cake).

But clearly the most important part about a cake is not it’s appearance, it’s the taste. And it tasted gooooooooooood. And I have you know, both parents, my mother-in-law and Ben all enjoyed it. So that’s that.

After having a good old natter with my mum, I spent the afternoon just chilling reading my Empire (movie review) magazine. I read an interview with Richard Curtis (legend in my eyes – Notting Hill, Love Actually, Bridget Jones and of course Four Weddings and a Funeral) and I read a bit to Ben as something made me laugh. And Ben goes “I’ve never seen Four Weddings and a Funeral”.

…

“What?” How am I married to this man?? How did I not know this? Seriously??

Four Weddings and a Funeral is like the quintessential British comedy. It is one of my favourite films of all time. How has he not seen it? Well this needed to be rectified immediately. Needless to say we had our Sunday afternoon planned.

Sunday morning I ran my 12 mile long run. Compared to last weekend’s long-run (which I thoroughly enjoyed as was just one of those great runs)…this run sucked. I started running and I just knew it wasn’t going to be good. Maybe I pushed myself too hard at Parkrun, maybe I didn’t eat properly the night before (cake before bed is never a great recipe for a good run I’ve found) or maybe it’s just one of those things. It really felt hard the entire time. Last weekend’s run was 8.11mins/mile average for 13 miles but this weekend it was 8.32mins/mile. Well, you win some you lose some.

After the run I had breakfast, then my mother-in-law came over to catch up with coffee (and cake), and then I went to body pump which was OK. I’m sorry, I can’t get excited about weights. It’s a purely supplementary exercise for me in order to stay injury-free and get stronger to support better running. The rest of the day was watching back-to-back Friends episodes (we have the entire box set – amazing) and then Four Weddings and a Funeral in the evening. Perfect.

And to recap this week’s workouts:

Monday: Spin

Tuesday: Hill session with running club (7 miles total)

Wednesday: Off

Thursday: Lonely 8 mile run on my own as I got home too late for running club

Friday: Spin

Saturday: Parkrun (3 miles)

Sunday: 12 miles and body pump

Total miles: 30

Quite happy with the week. With the half marathon coming up my mileage is higher than normal but I’m loving it so that’s fine. Spin is still tough but I find after running it really shakes out my legs.

Because I’m running quite a lot and spinning now as well I’m very careful to make sure I’m eating more to help sustain me through the week. I’ve been adding chia seeds to my oatmeal, having nice large dinners, lots of snacks at work (such as pistachios and dried fruit) and, er, yeah lots of cake. But I’ll show more of that on Wednesday

How was your weekend?

When you increase your workouts, how do you fuel to make sure you’re not going to flake away?

What have been your baking fails? Please tell me I’m not alone in my lack of domestic goddess-ability.

Your cake looks yummy – and it’s not about appearance anyway, it’s about taste! I once made a victoria sponge…popped it in the oven…went back to check it was rising and found it had risen very well and then promptly collapsed over the sides of the tin and was mostly on the bottom of my oven! What a mess!

That cake looks lovely, and home-made always tastes better than shop bought. Baking is all about what it tastes like anyway- so what if it is hard to slice!
I have had some baking disasters though (normally when I guess measurements as I can’t be bothered to get the cups or the weighing scales out, or when I sub many many ingredients!) but I enjoy it so I don’t mind if it doesn’t turn out well.
Gosh 12 miles and pump in one day is tough! Pump might grow on you maybe? The first few times I went I felt bewildered about what weight to have for each track and I am sure I spent more time fiddling with the bar than actually lifting it, but once I got the hang of the moves and what weights to have for each track (and once the music for each release grows on me) I love it, especially when I try a heavier weight and make it to the end of a track!

I can never say no to a slice of homemade cake if any is brought in to work. It’s like Christmas when it happens, but so often people just buy the ready made stuff from the shops, which is alright but just not as good!
Thankfully pump is only 30 minutes long and it’s long enough after the run to not be so brutal.
I’m exactly that person, scrabbling around for the right weight and not starting the moves on time. It’s just so damn quick!!

Y0ur cake actually doesn’t look too bad, I thought it was going to look far worse, and as long as it tasted good that is all that matters! I usually add bits into my regular meals if I am training more, another serving of seeds/nuts, spoon of nut butter, just add a little bit extra here and there which helps. I made a tray bake carrot cake once and only the outside was edible, there was too much moisture from the carrots and the middle was just not cooked at all- fail!

HAhahaha awww your cake looks so good on the other side! (Also I’m dying at “earthcake”!) This totally reminds me of this one time I baked a cake with my friend and I don’t know WHAT went wrong, but it was the ugliest cake I have ever seen. We tried to decorate it with frosting, but it just made it worse so we ended up writing “disaster” in frosting on it and naming it Herbert. (I have a weird sense of humor…) For years after we kept talking about “poor Herbert, he had disaster written all over him… literally.” Hahaha

Your cake fail made my morning. Well, lunch break 😉 … Haha. You totally guessed my thoughts- “That doesn’t look bad at all.” Other side- reminds me of a website called Cake Wrecks that I found yesterday. Yours looks better than all of them because 1. I bet it was edible. 2. I bet it was delicious. 3. It looks like you actually tried. 4. It doesn’t look like something inappropriate/say something inappropriate.

Haha I must have a look at that website. I’m curious to see cakes that say something inappropriate hehe.
Was it that Friends episode where they got an inappropriately shaped cake for a baby’s birthday? Hehe.

Your cake looks great! Love your photography talents at hiding the back of the cake! Hehe!
My Mum used to bake a chocolate cake every Sunday and every single week bits of the cake would be left in the baking tin, so she would scrape them out and stick them back onto the cake with icing. I always hoped to get one of those bits in my slice! Victoria sponge is the best type of cake!
Not seen Four Weddings and a Funeral?! The film with one of the best ever lines…”Is it raining?…I hadn’t noticed…!” I love Richard Curtis. Don’t forget The Vicar of Dibley!

What a good idea using icing as glue! I’ll remember that in future.
Omg that line is like the cheesiest line ever but one of the greats haha. I literally could watch that film a million times and STILL laugh.